NX5 or EA50

Hello, i have doen a lot of research and read many articles about these two cameras but i still cant decide wich would suit me better, maybe someone can help me - practically i shoot mainly news, documentary, run and gun, wich of these two cameras [NEX-EA50 or HXR-NX5] would be better for this purpose ?

I have not used the NEX so can only comment based on my extensive NX5 experience.

1. NX5 is smaller, so you can get into spaces easier, however is more difficult to handhold steady compared to a shoulder mount.

2. Both use the same compression, no differnce.

3. NX5 autofocus much prefers to focus on vertical lines behind your subject rather than the round features of a face. Looks like the NEX has face detection. For interviews could be a good thing.

4. NX5 has 20 to 1 zoom, good if you need to get close up but then wide shot quickly, like someone walking toward or away from you. Very handy. NEX is 10 to 1 zoom, and it looks like it the full zoom that is not as good as the NX5.

5. NEX has a single, large sensor, which makes it easier to make the background go out of focus. NX5 has three smaller sensors, good for having a wide depth a field, bad for using focus to you advantage.

The rest of the controls kind of look the same. I would base it on if you want shoulder mount, or handheld with a tripod.

Thank you very much for such a useful information, but one thing still bothers me - can we live without ND filters ? EA50 doesnt have built in ND filters, and i wonder , will image quality will be okay in bright sunlight or snow ?

I'm sorry but this is a no brainer. If you are shooting news and run & gun stuff then hands down the NX5 is the best option. Not having built-in ND filters will make your life MISERABLE shooting news and/or run & gun.

the ea50 , no questions for me. The time for the small sensor camcorders is about to end. The quality difference is substantial and the only reason why they still sell those is because they have stocks to empty. All the cameras should be with a decent sensor, so we can compete against the kids posting parts of the same event on youtube that look WAY better than the ones we get with the obsolete small sensor prosumer camcorders that cost an arm and a leg and (again) can't compete against a $300 DSLR (or even cell phones for that matter). Also consider that the clients watch youtube, so they know or at least they can see. The ea50 gives stunning quality , a primitive zoom (but it depends on the lens, so it may get better soon) , no SDI , 1 slot only, no ND!, a pretty bad rolling shutter (so we have to undust our skills and go around that). All the rest is superlative. minus the choice of giving it a slow(ish) bitrate (but that's marketing, Sony can't give professional features , if not how will they possibly sell the more expensive cameras?